Research Article

Twentieth century agricultural drainage creates more erosive rivers

  1. Shawn P. Schottler1,*,
  2. Jason Ulrich2,
  3. Patrick Belmont3,
  4. Richard Moore4,
  5. J. Wesley Lauer5,
  6. Daniel R. Engstrom1,
  7. James E. Almendinger1

Article first published online: 1 MAR 2013

DOI: 10.1002/hyp.9738

Additional Information

How to Cite

Schottler, S. P., Ulrich, J., Belmont, P., Moore, R., Lauer, J. W., Engstrom, D. R. and Almendinger, J. E. (2013), Twentieth century agricultural drainage creates more erosive rivers. Hydrol. Process.. doi: 10.1002/hyp.9738

Author Information

  1. 1

    St. Croix Watershed Research Station, Science Museum of Minnesota, Marine on St. Croix, MN, USA

  2. 2

    Department of Biosystems and Bioproducts Engineering, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, USA

  3. 3

    Department of Watershed Science, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, USA

  4. 4

    Water Resources Center, Minnesota State University-Mankato, Mankato, MN, USA

  5. 5

    Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Seattle University, Seattle, WA, USA

* Correspondence to: Shawn P. Schottler, St. Croix Watershed Research Station, Science Museum of Minnesota, Marine on St. Croix, MN 55047, USA.
E-mail: schottler@smm.org

Publication History

  1. Article first published online: 1 MAR 2013
  2. Accepted manuscript online: 11 FEB 2013 10:52PM EST
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 25 JAN 2013
  4. Manuscript Received: 4 JUN 2012

SEARCH

SEARCH BY CITATION

ARTICLE TOOLS

View Full Article with Supporting Information (HTML) Get PDF (770K)

Keywords:

  • artificial drainage;
  • agricultural hydrology;
  • streamflow;
  • crop conversion;
  • channel widening;
  • sediment

Abstract

Rivers in watersheds dominated by agriculture throughout the US are impaired by excess sediment, a significant portion of which comes from non-field, near-channel sources. Both land-use and climate have been implicated in altering river flows and thereby increasing stream-channel erosion and sediment loading. In the wetland-rich landscapes of the upper Mississippi basin, 20th century crop conversions have led to an intensification of artificial drainage, which is now a critical component of modern agriculture. At the same time, much of the region has experienced increased annual rainfall. Uncertainty in separating these drivers of streamflow fuels debate between agricultural and environmental interests on responsibility and solutions for excess riverine sediment. To disentangle the effects of climate and land-use, we compared changes in precipitation, crop conversions, and extent of drained depressional area in 21 Minnesota watersheds over the past 70 years. Watersheds with large land-use changes had increases in seasonal and annual water yields of >50% since 1940. On average, changes in precipitation and crop evapotranspiration explained less than one-half of the increase, with the remainder highly correlated with artificial drainage and loss of depressional areas. Rivers with increased flow have experienced channel widening of 10–40% highlighting a source of sediment seldom addressed by agricultural best management practices. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

View Full Article with Supporting Information (HTML) Get PDF (770K)